Sikh Separatism In The Punjab

Press, Volume C, Issue 29608, 2 September 1961, Page 10

Sikh Separatism In The Punjab

Master Tara Singh's fast to the death exemplifies the kind of communal separatism that threatens national progress in India. Aged 75 and the undisputed leader of the militant Sikhs, the Master has thrived on crises. Born a Hindu, he espoused the Sikh religion with a convert’s zeal; and he has campaigned successively against corrupt control of the Gurdwaras (Sikh temples), against the British, against the Moslems fwhom he virtually challenged for possession of the Punjab), and finally against the Hindus, whom he accuses of trying to absorb the Sikh community and destroy its faith. Seven years ago a Southern Indian fanatic, Sri Potti Sriramudu, died after fasting for a Teleguspeaking Andhra State. To placate popular feelings the central Government quickly established Andhra State; and other major language groups—though not the Sikhs—also had their constitutional claims conceded. This default (as he sees it) is what Master Tara Singh wants remedied. In common with most of India s political leaders, Master Tara Singh was repeatedly imprisoned by the British: but he differs in that since independence he has been arrested at least four times for fomenting unrest. Estimates of the strength of his following vary; when the Indian Government imprisoned him last year nearly 25,000 supporters went with him to gaol. Yet many Sikhs, including the Chief Minister of the Punjab (Sardar Partap Singh Kairon) hat© and distrust him. Though his professed claim is for a separate Punjabi-speaking State, his real desire is a Sikh State, which probably would have a small Hindu majority. To convene Sikh statehood would therefore involve, what Mr Nehru undoubtedly regards as an injustice to thousands of Hindus. Moreover, Mr Nehru and other national leaders consider that the Master’s demands contravene the secular aspirations of the Indian Constitution. ‘ Amritsar’s Golden Temple, the scene of Master Tara Singh's fast, is the

headquarters of the Sikh extremist party, the Akali Dai. A Sikh only slightly less revered, Sant Fateh Singh, fasted there last winter in the same cause. The Akalis charge Mr Nehru with breaking the pledges that caused the Sant to end his fast. Among the concessions by which the Indian Government prevented communal disturbances because of the Sant’s ordeal was the release from preventive detention of Master Tara Singh, who then announced that the Sikh demands had been “ substantially met ”, Recent events have strengthened many Indians’ opinion that the clemency shown the Master last January f was in fact mistaken.